Q: Stuttering at idle at regular intervals of about 7 seconds on a 1997 Honda Civic
I have a 1997 Honda Civic, 1.8. VTI B18C4. The problem is, at idle, it stutters briefly about a half a second, like it is going to stall but it goes away. It comes at regular intervals of about 7 seconds. Any ideas?
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Yes, it is typical on those Hondas. First, watch my video "How to Fix a Car that Idles Poorly." Take off the air intake, then duct the rubber part that goes to the intake on the top of the engine and do all the cleaning of it. Clean the throttle and make sure that it is cleaned really well.
Since it is a Honda, make sure that there is no air in the cooling system. Because, if you are low on coolant, the air gets into the cooling system and the sensors are going to do exactly that. Pray that it hasn’t messed up the throttle position sensor because all those parts, including the idle air control, you can replace them on a Honda but you have to buy a whole bunch of stuff they can be very expensive.
Sometimes, you have to end up taking apart the whole throttle, clean it all, and put it all together. If you don’t want to do something like that, a certified technician, such as one from YourMechanic, can clean the throttle body for you. A lot of times, taking it all apart, cleaning it, and putting it back together will fix this - but it’s not something simple.
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